1. Field of the Invention
A surgical tissue retractor for aortic or pulmonary surgery to engage and retain a heart valve open during the surgery.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The aortic and the pulmonary valve are tri-leaflet in nature. During aortic or pulmonary valve surgery the diseased valve needs to be held open to expose the valve for correction or replacement of the valve. This requires a valve retractor.
Chest retractors exist in many sizes and shapes for cardiac surgery. Many such chest retractors have an elongate rack bar and two retracting arms, namely a fixed retracting arm and a movable retracting arm. Both arms typically extend in a direction normal to the rack bar. The movable arm can be displaced along the rack bar, and relative to the fixed arm, by using a crank to activate a pinion mechanism which engages teeth on the rack bar. Two blades are provided, usually disposed below the retractor arm and extending into the surgical incision, to interface with the patient's skin and thoracic bone structure. These two blades apply the retraction that creates the surgical window by the relative movement and an ensuing spacing apart of the two retractor arms.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,837,851 and US 2005/0096508 show a surgical tool for retracting body tissue during surgery comprising two pivoting arms each provided with a finger, a translating actuation member also provided with a finger, and a single actuator mechanically coupled to either one of the pivoting arms or the translating actuation member. The two pivoting arms and the actuation member are operatively connected together for simultaneous movement between a closed configuration having the three fingers close together, and an open configuration having the three fingers spaced apart. The surgical tool is adaptable to suit the specific patient anatomy and desired degree of tissue retraction.
US 2010/0286485 relates to an adjustable multi-bladed tissue retractor capable of producing an incrementally variable or fine-tunable retracted opening in a surgical incision or a body cavity comprising an actuator coupled to a retractor housing and a movable linkage arrangement capable of moving the plurality of tissue-engaging blades attached thereto between a closed-blade configuration and an open-blade configuration. Through the application of a predetermined input to the actuator, a controlled, or selectable spaced apart spatial relationship of the plurality of tissue are positioned for retracting blades for the specific anatomy of the patient.
US 2011/0046448 describes a tissue retracting apparatus for use in cardiac surgery having a first tissue retracting member configured and sized to retract a cardiac tissue of the patient's heart and a second tissue retracting member configured and sized to retract, depress or displace a valve cusp tissue of the target heart valve. In use, the second tissue retracting member is coupled to the first retracting member, so that the first and second retracting members cooperate together to collectively allow the simultaneous retraction of a cardiac tissue of the patient's heart and a valve cusp of the target valve while a surgical intervention can be carried out on either the target heart valve or a subvalvular structure of the target heart valve.
Additional examples of the prior art are found in: U.S. Pat. No. 6,074,343; U.S. D 430,294; U.S. D 422,705 and U.S. D 448,081.